D Slavovich Ratz: What Russia lacks

Only 1,384,623 children are estimated to be born this year. While in United States 4,140,479 babies will be born. Clearly the Russians are short by 2,755,856 kids, and after about 20 years that turns to 55,117,128 short. In a generation from now, in 20 years time we will have only 27,692,460 Russians that are 20 and under! That's if we let this continue. So what are the alternatives?

Capitalist societies survive and thrive, and Russia is not any different in this respect, except in one aspect. This aspect being that this is not the case in Russia. So what does Russia lack to not be wiped of the map? There is a consensus that California is a place of capitalism. So what does California have that Russia does not? California has programs where women of low income get government sponsored assistance, and it goes further. The women gets assistance for a child she has, even more assistance for a second child, and even more for a third.

There are some stark difference between economies of California and Russia.

California is very prosperous, and people question the need for this program's existence. If economy is so good, and opportunity is virtually without end to find a good paying job than people feel the lazy take advantage of this assistance instead of getting out into the 'real world' and getting a job. In contrast Russian man and woman both work, at high level positions, and face the harsh reality that they can not offered to raise a child. So economy starts to suffer from lack of people, and territorial integrity loses stability as hungry eyes look from afar.

We spend tens of billions of dollars on defense yearly, but if we don't have anyone to defend in the area, nobody to operate the tools, it's no wonder we are being invaded by Chinese. Depopulated areas are seceding like Kazakhstan of less than 16 million (in an area about size of Western Europe), because without the normalcy that comes with well grounded population places resort to desert anarchy. Just pick an American movie on what happens when something catastrophic reduces population. Anarchy kicks in, someone thinks he should rule, and "all hell" breaks lose.

It's time we invest into what to defend, and there is nothing like giving a hardworking man and a woman the chance to have a child. So out of tens of billion let's just take one 10 billion US dollars and put it where it really matters. 2,755,856 children shortage would disappear in a matter of 9 months!

Each hardworking couple would get $3,628.63 yearly to help them raise one child. That might not sound like much to our American readers, but that's 5 times what pensioners get in a year! In low inflation relative to the world Russia that's 105,559.74 roubles a year per child, and 8,796.64 roubles per month (not bad at all).

So what's stopping the Duma? What could be more important than the country's children? What's more important than hardworking parents being able to have a child? This is a solution to all of Russia's problems, but Duma ignores it. A country without children is a country without a future. Let's give Russia the possibility of a future.